SEO and COVID-19: Why SEO Is More Important Than Ever

There’s no question about it; the last four months have been difficult times for everybody. This is especially true for businesses, many of which had to temporarily close their offices or shops, during lockdown, and some cease trading altogether. While the UK is slowly starting to creak slowly back to normality, it’s safe to say that the future is unclear, and we’ll likely never go back to the way things were.

We’ve continued to work hard for our clients all throughout the lockdown, and if one thing is clear, it’s that SEO is more important now than it’s ever been, and this new digital way of doing things is unlikely to go away in the future. Let’s take a look at why SEO is so important now, and why it’s going to remain that way for a long time.

The COVID-19 buzz will eventually subside

The ongoing pandemic is still very real and dangerous for many, and it likely will be for a long time. It seems that the only thing the world wants to talk about right now is COVID-19, and although it’s a serious ongoing issue that must be discussed, it can make it hard for businesses to get noticed online through all the COVID-19 hustle and bustle.

But the world won’t be consumed by this dreadful virus forever. When COVID-19 is dead and buried, the content that people are craving about your industry won’t be. When the COVID-19 cloud clears, all the content you’ve invested time and effort into during this crisis will be clear for the world (and more importantly, Google) to see.

Ultimately, by investing in your SEO now, you’ll ensure that your business comes out at the other end of this pandemic on the strongest foot, and miles ahead of the competition.

A graph of showing declining COVID-19 popularity.
This graph from Google Trends shows the declining popularity of COVID-19 online.

The digital way is the new way

The fact that we’re living in an ever more digital world isn’t exactly new or revolutionary news, but COVID-19 literally forced people to shop and do business online. You only need to look at the dwindling high-street sales to see that customers are choosing to shop online rather than in-store. The same can be said for many, many industries. Again, this isn’t new, but COVID-19 has massively emphasised the change in people’s shopping habits.

The fact of the matter is that the way people shop and do business has changed forever. The digital world has been coming for a long time, and COVID-19 has simply accelerated it. Many businesses have already made the transition to e-commerce (or a mix between the two), and we expect more will be doing so in the future. Indeed, one of the core principles of succeeding in business is to adapt the ever-changing ways that people do business.

A graph of page view by category
A graph from Bazaarvoice that illustrates the growth in online page views online for each industry when compared with 2019.

SEO is a long term investment

SEO doesn’t happen overnight. Whether it’s optimising on-copy, fixing technical issues with the site, building strong citations or any other techniques we use to get businesses ranking, it can take 6-12 months to start seeing really strong results.

If you’re considering investing in SEO now, that’s probably the best news you could hear. Beginning your SEO journey in the midst of the pandemic isn’t a problem, because you wouldn’t start feeling the true benefits until the new year when the shadow of COVID-19 has lifted slightly. 

A graph showing an increase in traffic over time
Taken from Google Analytics, this graph shows an enormous increase in traffic for one of our clients. The graph compares June 2020 with June 2019.

 

Active Internet Marketing (UK)

Here at Active, we understand the importance of ongoing SEO for our clients during difficult times, which is why we’ve been working hard to ensure business as usual all the way through the pandemic. Through the work we do each day, we help our clients to keep a visible presence online, and make sure they step into this strange new world with their strongest foot first.

If you’d like to find out more about what we do, give us a call on 01604 765 796, or fill in our online contact form and we’ll be in touch.

 

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